Microsoft plans to restart the Three Mile Island nuclear plant that narrowly averted catastrophe

Microsoft is within the midst of a deal that may deliver the notorious Three Mile Island nuclear energy plant again to life, according to reporting by The Washington Post. If the identify sounds acquainted, it’s as a result of the Pennsylvania plant was house to a partial meltdown of one among its reactors back in 1979.

The deal would make Microsoft the plant’s sole buyer for 20 years, which means it’ll hoover up one hundred pc of the ability all for itself. Why does the corporate want a lot juice? You possibly can guess. It’s for AI, which is notoriously power hungry. Look, if it takes a whole nuclear energy plant so we are able to ask Bing to whip up a picture of Steve Urkel in area using a skateboard, then we gotta do it. It’s the longer term… or no matter.

Let’s break it down additional. If this deal is accredited by regulators, Three Mile Island will present Microsoft with sufficient vitality to energy 800,000 properties. Once more, no properties might be getting that vitality, however don’t fear. Microsoft will have the ability to maintain a dwell streaming occasion to point out off some ghoulish new AI video era instruments or one thing.

I do know I’m coming off as an actual troglodyte right here, however there’s a silver lining. This might assist Microsoft meet its pledge to energy AI growth with zero emissions electrical energy. It’s not as if these corporations would surrender on AI if there wasn’t a decommissioned nuclear energy plant sitting round, so this transfer may assist alleviate a number of the pressure that’s already being positioned on our energy grid resulting from ye olde synthetic intelligence.

If accredited, this may be a first-of-its-kind deal for a few causes. A industrial energy plant has by no means labored completely for one consumer earlier than. It’ll even be the very first time a decommissioned energy plant has come again on-line. It’s value noting that the plant shut down 5 years in the past for financial causes, which has nothing to do with the partial meltdown from 1979. The present plan is for it to renew operations by 2028.

“The vitality trade can’t be the rationale China or Russia beats us in AI,” mentioned Joseph Dominguez, chief government of Constellation, the corporate that owns the plant. I’d take his jingoistic language with a grain of salt, nonetheless, as Constellation stands to make an absolute boatload of money from this deal.

Let’s do some math. Yearly income from a nuclear energy plant averages $470 million. Microsoft would be the unique purchaser of this vitality for 20 years, which totals $9.4 billion. Constellation is spending $1.6 billion to get the plant going once more, together with federal subsidies and tax breaks offered by the Inflation Restoration Act. This leaves $7.8 billion in candy, candy revenue. That’s only a guesstimate, however you get the gist. The corporate does promise $1 million in “philanthropic giving to the area” over the subsequent 5 years. That is $200,000 a 12 months.

This isn’t a finished deal. There are numerous regulatory hurdles that Constellation must leap over. This contains intensive security inspections from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Fee, which has by no means approved a plant reopening. There’s additionally prone to be an inquiry into these aforementioned tax breaks, as the entire vitality goes to at least one non-public firm and never serving complete communities. However come on. Steve Urkel on a skateboard in area.

On the plus facet, Constellation will want round 600 workers to run the plant, according to the New York Times. Jobs are good. Additionally, the corporate says it received’t be looking for any extra subsidies from Pennsylvania. The Palisades nuclear plant in Michigan can also be looking to reopen for business, nevertheless it plans on servicing the native grid and never the gaping maw of AI.